Species seen today: Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphin, harbour porpoise

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, fulmar, cormorant, black-legged kittiwake, herring gull, manx shearwater, iceland gull, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, razorbill, common guillemot, black guillemot

10:00 - The morning tour was wonderful, with some sunshine and a windstill bay. We found a humpback whale unusually close to Reykjavík, just off Akurey. We saw a few surfaces but after some time we left this individual to get a bit further away. There we found two more humpback whales, Davy Jones and Aang. These were most likely feeding, accompanied by lots of arctic terns and a few arctic skuas. We also saw many minke whales and white-beaked dolphins surfacing in the background. We followed some of the white-beaked dolphins, but when we found out they were a bit elusive we went back to the humpback whales. Although all sightings had been amazing, the last one topped everything: Davy Jones came within a meter from our boat and did a fluke dive right by our bow. When we wanted to leave, we couldn´t because he was still right next to us, and showed us his fluke again! We were very lucky today to have an encounter from so close up with this giant of the ocean, and it´s a tour we will not soon forget! 

Crew: Captain Reynar & Guide Eline; Captain Daniel & Guide Miquel

12:00 - We stopped in Engey to watch cute little puffin on the island and on the water then continued further out. We found 3 humpback whales and probably 7-8 minke whales in an area with a lot of birds. The sea was calm and beautiful and it was easy to spot them. Two of the humpback were swimming together, it was Davy Jones II with a friend! Davy Jones was spy-hoping and being curious but soon it looked like there were tired of our presence and they were trumpetting and once peduncle throwing. We left and focused more on minke whales that were surfacing sometimes very close of us. Then we observed the third humpback whale that went on beautiful fluke dives. We were out of time and went back to the harbour ofter this lovely tour.

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Miquel

14:00 - The whales had gone a bit further out this afternoon, but around 12 miles away from the Reykjavík we found Davy Jones. This humpback whale was interacting with our boats, and even performed a spyhop! We always enjoy to see this behaviour because it means that the whales are watching us with as much interest as we are watching them. We also spotted a pod of white-beaked dolphins, and on the way back to Reykjavík we came across an area with hundreds of seabirds, around 2 or 3 minke whales, and two more humpback whales. After this tour full of wonderful wildlife encounters, it was really time to head back to the city - on the way still spotting many Atlantic puffins and other beautiful seabirds. 

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Eline; Captain Reynar & Guide Rodrigo

16:00 - We stopped in Engey to see the puffins but they were very few on the island. We continued and saw much more in the bay, a large group was trying to race us flying in a group. We stopped in an area where there was 4-5 harbour porpoises, 5 or 6 minke whales, 2 humpback whales, and in an area not very far a pod of 6-7 white-beaked dolphins. The humpback whales were swimming together showing us there beautiful tail during their deep dive. Minke whales were clearly feeding with some splashy lunge-feeding. The white-beaked dolphins were not in the mood and stayed far from us, maybe also busy feeding, difficult to know. At some point an Arctic tern decided that flying was tiring and tried to stop and rest on the head of one of our passengers! It finally chose to stay in the front of the bow. We had a last close sighting of one of the humpback and came back to the harbour.

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Miquel; Captain Reynar & Guide Rodrigo

• 20:00 - The sunset was incredible tonight and the bay had many animals to show us. We first spotted a pod of white-beaked dolphins. Some of them came close to us, but overall they were rather elusive. The dolphins lead us to an enormous flock of seabirds, and it seemed highly likely there would at least be a few whales feeding on the same fish as the birds. We indeed found three minke whales, and a humpback whale among the birds! The humpback whale was sleeping, but sometimes he came incredibly close to us. We got to see the fluke a couple of times when he went for a deeper dive, but in general the whale was very relaxed and came up occassionally to catch his breath. During the sighting, we also spotted a few harbour porpoises to make the list of species complete! We then sailed back with views of lava coming from the volcano and a wonderful orange sunset in the background. 

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rodrigo; Captain Einar & Guide Eline

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